Jun 212015
 

 

sailingmap

we arrived in selimiye late afternoon after a really wonderful days sailing and found anchorage in the bay, it was our last stop before returning the yacht to marti marina, so it was a little sad, but we were also happy to be back in selimiye. kai and i hooked the paddle board up to the tender and i dragged him round the harbour!

sal and i had another lovely meal at sardunya restaurant, where we had been for her birthday, and then the following day we had a leisurely start for the short sail round into the next bay and back to orhaniye to return zambak to her home. we had to be fuelled up and back in the pen by 5:30pm and then we could stay onboard until 9am the next morning.

the marina services were very good, they had amazing showers – we all had very long, hot showers! it also has a lovely big swimming pool and a few restaurants, we chose to eat at the one beside the pool for our last night.

by lunchtime we were back in our cottage in bozburun, it truly felt like we had arrived home and i got a sense of how sad we are going to be to leave when we head to germany in a week or so!

anyway here is a last motley collection of images from the week on zambak!

Jun 212015
 

 

sailing-15

Skipper Sal at the helm with first mate kai

while we were in knidos i kept trying to get the best panorama to show the layout of the 2 bays, mainland and island that make up the area. the island was joined to the mainland by a causeway the ancient greeks constructed. anyway here a few of the attempts that didnt end up on the cutting room floor!

from knidos we sailed south, round to the outside of the greek island of symi and down to the ancient city of loryma on the east coast of the bozburun peninsula called bozukkale. it was a great day, although the breeze was a bit flukey, luckily we managed to sail most of the day. the entrance to the bay is overlooked by the ruins of the castle.  measuring 27 m. wide by 320 m. long, and surrounded by fortification walls, this long, narrow castle was erected to protect the bay. there were once nine square-shaped ramparts along protective walls made from straight cut stones. however of the original nine, only a single promontory rampart in the north can be seen today. there are round towers situated at the two ends of the castle. its quite an impressive sight!

we moored off the sailor’s house restaurant, which proved to be an inspired choice. the food was fantastic, and given that there is no road access so everything has to come in by boat it was all the more amazing. it was a set price -50TL for dinner, we got 3 yummy mezes and a coice of main courses, sal chose a wonderful lamb dish with a large part of the leg of lamb cooked in the wood fired oven and i had scrumptious grilled octopus. all served with amazing fresh salad and vegies out of the extensive garden behind the restaurant.

mustufa was a very friendly host and was passionate about his lifestyle and wonderful little restaurant business.

after a very pleasant stay we had once again to move on. we sailed out from bozukkale and headed around the cape towards bozburun, but the wind was perfect for sailing so we decided to keep going and head across between the islands off the bozburun peninsula and the mainland and head towards selimiye. it was the best sail of the week, the wind was perfect and the scenery was stunning – the cliffs of the mainland on one side and the craggy islands the other.

Jun 212015
 
sal at the helm of zambak

sal at the helm of zambak

its been a pretty eventful week since my last dispatch on the blog, friday a week ago we got a lift over to marti marina in the village of orhaniye and picked up our charter yacht, zambak – a beneteau 343 – and set off for 8 days of sailing the turkish coast.

we sailed up to datça the first day, and discovered a couple of unexpected problems, the fresh water pump wasnt working and the bilge was full of fresh water – likely connected events as i suspected.

i rang the charter company and they arranged for a mechanic to come to the boat and try to repair the pump, he managed to find the leaks on the hot water side and fix them, but the water pump was beyond his persistent macgivering and late on friday night he gave up and informed the company they would have to send someone over with a new waterpump the next day.

we didnt mind too much as datça is a nice little town, a pretty setting and a bit of a buzz without being too busy. also our friends robbie, jo, peter & heidi who were sailing on their boats and whom we had met in bozburun, were still coming up the coast so it gave them a chance to catch up with us.

a guy appeared on saturday morning on his scooter with a toolbox and waterpump between his feet and he set to replacing the old one, it was a brand new second hand one and proved to have a mind of its own with the pressure switch playing up over the remaining time of the charter, but we just took it in our stride and got on with the job at hand!

after a second night at datça we headed off to knidos, the others decided to stay an extra day and do some exploring by motorbike, as we had already driven the area we said we would go on ahead and they would catch us up the following day in knidos.

we ended up staying in knidos for 3 nights, we had an amazing time there, it is such a powerful setting, being anchored in the actual harbour of a 2500 year old ancient greek city. imagining the population of about 6000 people going about their business and daily lives. trying to guess why after nearly 1000 years the city was deserted and left to crumble into ruins, despite none of the issues that beset other abandoned greek cities, (silting rivers, earthquakes, sacking by conquerers.) discussing what had happened to the statue of aphrodite that mysteriously disappeared from its circular temple on the crest of knidos and is apparently lost to humanity. trying to work out how the hell they actually carved, moved and then erected the massive stone blocks that remain from the waterline right up to the acropolis at the peak of the steep hills overlooking the harbour. it is truly mind boggling and largely myterious to us.

its impossible not to be impressed by not just the scope and breadth of the endevour to build such a city over 2500 years ago, but also the accuracy, construction without mortar and joints that are still perfect.

as well as scrambling all over the hillsides like crazy mountain goats, which are covered with fragrant wild thyme bushes ablaze with purple flowers and buzzing with bees, we enjoyed the crystal clear, azure waters. this is the point where the aegean sea and the med meet and the turquoise waters live up to their postcard perfect reputation. swimming, snorkelling and paddleboarding were all pleasant past times in paradise!

each afternoon we got together for drinks on one of the boats, either joining robbie and jo on the “southern star” – their very comfortable and roomy nordhavn 47 motor cruiser they had steamed up from nz in, or peter and heidi – 3 years into sailing round the world from germany on the very practical and pretty aluminium cutter, “stormvogel” or on the final night together squeezing onto “zambak”!

after knidos we parted ways, “southern star” & “stormvogel” heading north and we weighed anchor and headed back south, around the greek island of symi and down to another ancient greek city, loryma, now called bozukkale, but thats another story!

it was not without sadness, we had become very close to robbie, jo, heidi and peter in a short amount of time – but thats part of the joy of travelling, you meet people, connect, share experiences and then move on. i somehow it wont be the last we see of them though – maybe a get together in arnhem land!